On Tuesday, April 30th, we took Kudo to Ryegate for a wellness check-in to ensure that we weren’t missing anything and that he was maintaining his quality of life. During the visit, Kudo’s back was tender but nothing major. Kudo was looked over completely, and everything looked great. Kudo was prescribed a new pain medication galliprant, and we scheduled a follow-up appointment for Acupuncture. Wednesday night, we visited with our friends. Kudo played outside and went to bed upstairs as usual. 

Thursday, Brad was home with Kudo for most of the day; Kudo was acting normal and playing as usual. Brad left mid-day for a quick trip to Littleton. When I came home from work, Kudo appeared to be tired and was having a really hard time getting himself up from lying down. He has needed some help with this, but this time, we could see it was painful. Throughout the night, Kudo would have bouts of rapid-short breaths and calmed down when his nose was getting rubbed. 

I left for work Friday morning, and Kudo still showed signs of distress. Kudo wouldn’t get up or stand up on his own. Once he stood, he would take a few steps but needed support.  We called Ryegate and made an appointment for that afternoon. I came home early to help calm Kudo down; his breathing was more rapid, and he was uncomfortable. Since Kudo had just seen the team at Ryegate on Tuesday, they were just as baffled as we were. Kudo’s heart rate was over 200 BPM, and his breath was rapid. They began by checking his blood for signs of what might be causing Kudo to have these symptoms. X-rays were taken. We were expecting the worst outcome; we had no idea how Kudo went from being okay to this in just a few hours. 

None of the tests returned any indication of what happened to Kudo. During a physical exam, Kudo’s upper spine appeared more tender than two days prior. This was determined to be causing Kudo the pain he was in. It appeared that Kudo may have slipped or pulled something in his back. 

Over the next few days, Kudo rested in bed and was mildly sedated to allow his back to heal. Kudo is doing better and working on recovery.

Within a week of this injury, Kudo is regaining his mobility with physical therapy, and we are reducing his medication.

Since Kudo has arthritis, we don’t want him to lay in bed too much; he has been getting up every couple of hours for short walks. He has a new lift-assisting harness to help keep some of his weight off his sore legs, allowing him to move around with limited risks. We went the first few days without this harness, Kudo would not walk with a towel or anything supporting him except for Brad holding his chest. While we have other harnesses, none were supported enough to hold Kudo comfortable enough to allow him to move around freely.

Kudo has been making progress daily, and we hope for a quick recovery. In addition to physical therapy, Kudo is receiving acupuncture and PEMF with RoManBear.

Today, May 13th, Kudo stood up and walked around the house a few times without any assistance. We are still assisting Kudo outside to ensure that he doesn’t fall or re-injure himself.